We are coming to terms with them over a common enemy.
Aliens would not have been bad enough.
An optimist view.
Am I wrong?
I see that France wants a coalition to go after Isis and Russia clearly
has cause as do we, so I do see something that will unite us. Now
the question becomes will the leaders in charge then use that to further
cooperation on other pressing matters that require cooperation.
This could be a place where uniting over common interest may prove
to be real blessing for future generations. I think we have forgotten
how we united over the common enemy that was Hitler and how the
west united against the soviet union, so we have on past occasions
united over common causes. I believe that we must unite over still
more issues like climate control and pollution and overpopulation,
so the potential for more united actions exists. It all depends on
electing public officials like Obama who can see the need for common
purpose as oppose to the village idiots running for the GOP nomination.
The future requires us to unite in ways we have never done so in the past
because the issues that face us are global in nature, not local in nature.
We must think globally, not locally and we must plan the long game which
means we actually begin to think more than 12 minutes into the future and think
months, years, decades and yes, centuries in advance. We must think the long
term in all actions we take because we are in it for the long term.
Going forward I think the motto that will best describe the human race will be,
the old cliché, think globally, act locally. I believe that is our future if we are to
have a future.
Kropotkin
Yes peter, the government and the UN will unite towards a common goal, to put microchips in all of us. Removing our freedoms is their weapon against ISIS, similar to how the UN “united” to make the abomb to defeat hitler. If I had to guess id say ISIS was started by the cia
I think that Islam is a house divided and neither choice (Sunni vs Shia extremism) is good for the West. They may disagree about who is the legitimate successor of the Prophet, but they agree about how to achieve their ends. Problem is that every bomb that destroys another building only reinforces the fearlessness of our adversaries on both sides. There is nothing left for them to go back to. How can we talk about jobs for the muslim youths in Iraq when there is no running water?
Russia has stepped into a pile of shit, just as we have. Opponents of Assad (ISIS) are terrorist. Supporters of Assad (Iran) are also terrorists. If terrorism as a whole is our enemy then we have no ally but the faceless moderate that is hypothetically discussed (we have no way of knowing who is an angel).
What should Russia and the US do? Let their civil war play out. “Oh but the humanity, the innocent!”. No one interfered in the US civil war. I see no ill effects from that. There are cemeteries filled with innocent casualties of war, but at least there was an end to the war, and whether the Union was the side many wanted to lose, eventually people began to deal with that reality.
On the other hand, there is the possibility that ISIS’s specific brand of Islam will be an alienating force even among Sunni Muslims thus defining an outright common enemy for both Sunnis and Shias. Such is not the case yet, in my opinion, but it might get there. Today Al-Qaeda sees ISIS not as a threat, but as an opportunity. If they ever get to see ISIS as a threat, as a common enemy, then something might change from within, which will destroy ISIS.
So it is of less importance whether Russia and the US have found a common adversary, but whether Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, for example, have found a bigger threat than the “Great Satan”.
I think it has escaped your attention that Russia is pro Assad, whilst the West is pro-Saudi.
Having said that - you are as lucky as hell to have Obama and not some moron like Trump who would fuck things up in the space of time it takes to fart.
That’s what I mean. Even cold war differences pale in comparison with the more existential difference of loving life versus loving death.
I’ve been to Syria and seen the place under Assad, I can understand the Russians, it was calm and you could walk around as you wished.
Ha, that’s petty difficult to argue with. I was just talking to someone about how they have to go through an equivalent of Germany’s 30 year war, more or less the same argument. Battles even within families. You see that in Islam now. A bother of a Turkish friend of mine actually joined IS.
…which makes communications now a bit complicated. I heart it the week before the attacks. He says the attacks are an attack on him. But this is always a bit typical - even though I see his point, or rather the pressure this causes for him, there is never a muslim who says ‘alright alright it’s my fault, sue me’. They don’t sue, they send to hell.
This is how Russia is infinitely closer to us.
Here I am with Saturn in Moscow.
In the background Hotel Kosmos, built to the occasion of the friendship between France and Russia. Charles De Gaulle has a large statue in front of it which nonetheless looks puny against the massive hotel where I had to leave the windows on the 18th floor open because of the ridiculous heat, causing the -20 C air to flow in and cause the weirdest dreams ive ever had.
Marriage and sanction between the state and the lovers.
…couples in black coats and white dresses walking across the bright silver cobblestones of the red square to the Kremlin walls and paying respects at the flame of the unknown soldier.
This too they once shared with the French; Vesta.
I think that Russia will gladly go through the mud to return to France her honor. Because it still understands the concept of honor, it knows that by giving it to that to which one is indebted, one receives it also.
On that note it is clear enough what Islam still has to do to be at peace with itself - but I will not speak of this, not until I see a burning bush.
happy winter!
As it stands, only temporarily because some interests align.
Long term Europa needs to get over her moralism and Russia needs to learn some manners. We could be lovers then.
They are allies in the sense that both would like to use Isis as an excuse to get control of Syria and influence in general in the region. But not a shared control.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/ … ar-broader
And the reason so many refugees are pouring into Europe and elsewhere from Syria is because the US, France and Syria backed fairly Isis-like rebels there and supported a civil war. Sure, the leader is a dictator, but the Western powers are not backing groups with much interest in democracy. So why would instability in that area be good for these counties, or really certain members of the elite in these countries? Why is a mass influx of refugees good for these same players?
Why was the US making invasion noises about going into Syria on the excuse of chem warfare until Seymor Hirsh found out that it was the rebels, likely supplied by US ally Turkey who used the chemweapons?